Wished She Could Fly
by FairRavenclawFromGlen
Summary: Twenty facts about Morag MacDougal—Ravenclaw, lover of heights, and Transfiguration extraordinaire.


**Wished She Could Fly  
_Twenty Absolutely True Facts About Morag Katherine MacDougal_**

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1. When Morag was born, she was one of six children. The oldest was her brother, Ian, and then her four older sisters, Elspeth, Isla, Mairi, and Fenella. When she was a mere infant, her eight year old brother contracted Dragon Pox. He had always had a weak immune system, and he died. Morag didn't remember her brother, but she knew that she looked remarkably like him.

2. She never knew what she wanted to be when her parents and siblings would ask her. When she was fifteen, she went to her career advice session, sat down in front of Professor Flitwick, and very frankly said that she had no idea what career she wanted to pursue. He looked over her grades, the comments from her other teachers, and told her that she had quite the attitude for teaching. She inwardly scoffed—her, a teacher?—but bit her tongue and listened because she had always liked Professor Flitwick.

When he finished, she thanked him and left. While walking back to her Ancient Runes class, she mulled over how incredibly pointless the whole thing was. She was nowhere closer to deciding on her sixth year classes than she was when she went there.

3. Her entire family was in Ravenclaw, but they all said that she belonged in Gryffindor. She would get mad every time they would say it because she wanted to be a Ravenclaw. When she sat down on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on her head, she crossed her arms over her chest, mentally shouted at the Hat for a while when it said that she would do very well in Gryffindor, and tried to glare at it but found that it was hard to glare at something on the top of her head. She told it to look a little deeper because she _knew_ there was Ravenclaw in her somewhere, and it chuckled.

"RAVENCLAW!"

When she took the Hat off, Morag spotted all of her sisters at the Ravenclaw table, stunned but happy, and she knew that the Hat made the right choice.

4. Her first impression of Terry Boot was that he was short, but a lot of people were short to her at eleven because she was so tall for her age. They met in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions on August 19th, 1991 while they were both waiting to be fitted for their school robes. She talked to him first, causing him to look a little startled, but she smiled at him and he hesitantly spoke back. By the time Morag had been called in to be fitted, she thought that they were on their way to becoming great friends. At Hogwarts, Terry was Sorted into Ravenclaw too, so she sat across from him at the opening feast and grinned at him.

Terry Boot was her first best friend.

5. Morag loved being off of the ground. When she was seven, she climbed a tree for the first time, carefully inched out onto a thick branch, and stood up. She decided that the dizzying feeling she got from being so high was exhilarating, and promptly fell out of the tree, breaking her arm. It didn't stop her though, and as soon as her parents let her she was back to climbing. Her mum told her once that she spent half of her childhood up in a tree somewhere. Her love of heights was one of the reasons why the Ravenclaw common room was her favorite place at Hogwarts, with its big open windows and status as the highest tower in the castle other than the Astronomy Tower (which she also spent a large amount of time in). Every time she was in a tree or staring out at the mountains from the common room, Morag wished she could fly. She was horribly crushed when she found out that flying a broomstick was _not_ her forte, no matter how hard she tried.

6. She was thoroughly Scottish on both sides of her family and she was related to Minerva McGonagall through her mother's side. However, Morag had always been very bad at genealogy and couldn't for the life of her figure out how, so she simply took her mother's word for it.

7. At Hogwarts, Morag found that she had quite the natural talent for Transfiguration. Her match turned into a needle on her third try during the first lesson. Unfortunately, whatever extra talent she possessed in Transfiguration was taken from Potions, which she was rubbish at. So, she always sat with Terry during Potions because it was his best subject and he always made sure to tell her right before she put in the wrong ingredient or added an extra stir.

8. Morag started liking Terry in her fourth year. Before then he had simply been a very good friend, but then they came back from the summer holidays and she saw him grin when he spotted her. It caused something flutter around in her stomach. When they hugged, she felt her face heat up. That night, after a tense dinner in which Terry asked her repeatedly why she was acting so off, a smirking Lisa Turpin confronted her about it in their dorm. Lisa was Morag's best girl friend and had always been able to read her like a book. Morag was very confused because she had never before thought of Terry as more than a friend. Two weeks of trying to sort out her feelings later, she came to the conclusion that she had fallen for him—there was no other possible explanation.

9. She loved happy endings and was always a bit of a romantic at heart. She was twenty-one when she saw the Muggle movie, Titanic, for the first time and she hated it because it was a romance _and_ a tragedy. It was her opinion that those genres shouldn't be mixed, for she liked romances to have happy endings and tragedies made her sad. Titanic had even made her cry. Morag hated crying.

10. When she was young, she hero-worshipped Harry Potter, just like every other child her age. She was ecstatic to find that he would be in her year at Hogwarts, but rather put out when she saw that he was a small, bespectacled boy. She was taller than him by at least six inches! She eventually realized that he was just human, but it didn't stop her from staying a little awestruck by him.

11. When Neville said that Harry was coming back and they were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows, Morag didn't Floo her family for fear they would be hurt or killed. She knew that she was being incredibly selfish, but it was to keep her family safe, and that made up for it, didn't it? When the Final Battle was over and she saw how many people had died, how many people had lost their siblings and children and parents, she quietly told herself that she made the right decision.

12. Quidditch was one of her biggest passions and she had supported Pride of Portree since she could walk. Her family had been to countless professional Quidditch games. Her dad even managed to get tickets to the 1994 Quidditch World Cup. (She supported Ireland.) Because she was a rubbish flyer, she never tried out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, but she cheered for Elspeth and Mairi at every match and attended as many games as she could when Mairi went on to play for the Appleby Arrows.

13. When she left Hogwarts, Morag still had no idea of what she wanted to do, so Terry suggested that she do something she loved. The first thing that came to mind was Transfiguration. So, she started to work for the Ministry of Magic in the development and study of Transfiguration magic. She enjoyed it very much, but it still didn't feel like the right profession for her. She kept thinking back to when Professor Flitwick said she would be a good teacher. Then, when she was thirty-five, Headmistress McGonagall sent her a letter asking if she wanted to be the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts. Morag was so confused that she went to see McGonagall that day. Morag asked why McGonagall wanted her to have the position. Her old professor responded that Morag was one of the best Transfiguration students she had ever taught and that Professor Flitwick had said she was interested in teaching. Morag sat in a stunned silence for a moment before she started laughing. She should have known Professor Flitwick would say such a thing.

Two quick consultations later—one with her boss, one with Terry—and Morag was the new Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

14. Next to Transfiguration, Astronomy was Morag's favorite class at Hogwarts. She had been fascinated by the night sky ever since her dad took her out to stargaze when she was a little girl and pointed out the constellations to her. Her dad was the one who got her started on the habit of wishing on the first star she saw each night.

15. Morag started studying three months before her O.W.L.s because she was so determined to do well, especially in Potions. She knew that she was only averaging an Acceptable because Terry watched her closely in class to make sure she didn't mess anything up. She wasn't really worried about any of her exams other than Potions, so a month before the O.W.L.s she asked Terry to tutor her specifically on the things that would come up on the exam. However, as they were dating by that point, these tutoring sessions never resulted in any actual studying. Two weeks before the exams she realized that she was doomed if she didn't get someone to really help her. So, she sucked up her pride and asked Anthony for help. He smirked at her for two days straight and didn't stop until she threatened to transfigure him into duck.

She passed her exam with a solid Exceeds Expectations and went on to take a N.E.W.T. in the subject, just to prove to everyone that she wasn't completely hopeless.

16. Her best friends in the entire world were the Ravenclaws in her year. They were all irreplaceable to her. She didn't know what she would do without them. Probably go crazy, she reasoned. When Mandy, Su, and Kevin were killed in the Battle of Hogwarts, Morag burst into sobbing fests for weeks after it happened. They came at the most random moments, but when the tears started flowing, it took a while for her to calm down.

17. She and Terry married in July when they were twenty. Terry had proposed to her in the first moments after Voldemort's defeat when they were celebrating his downfall, but they waited over two years for the actual wedding because there were so many other things to deal with in the wake of the war. It was one of the happiest days of her life. They had been blessed with a day that wasn't hot and humid or cold and rainy, but rather a clear day with mild weather. The wedding was outside and Morag wore a simple dress with flowers in her auburn hair. Lisa was her Maid of Honor, and Padma and all of her sisters but Elspeth (who, at that point, was very pregnant and asked not to be in the wedding) were her bridesmaids. It was a rather small occasion with only their closest family and friends. The entirety of Dumbledore's Army had attended, though, because after everything they went through together in the war, Morag and Terry both knew they were all lifelong friends.

18. Even though Luna Lovegood was in her House and only a year below her, Morag didn't actually have a conversation with her until her fourth year. Morag had been walking down a corridor when, at the end of the corridor, she bumped into Luna. Luna had dropped her books and bent down to pick them up without saying a word. Morag found this odd, but after a second she reached down and handed one of the books to the blond girl. At this, Luna had looked up and stared at her strangely before calmly asking why Morag was helping her. Morag told her she did because it was the right thing to do. In actuality, she felt sorry for Luna. She knew that everyone picked on the girl, but she couldn't see why. There was nothing wrong with being a little different.

19. Morag was the type of person who hated not doing something. She always felt terribly bored when she was just sitting there. And then, in sixth year, Terry took her out onto the grounds by the lake and they laid down, her head on his chest, his arms around her, and just watched the sunset. They had to sneak back in later, but it was worth it.

That night, trying to fall asleep in her dormitory, Morag decided that doing nothing wasn't so bad if you were doing nothing with someone you cared about.

20. Growing up, Morag was the epitome of "daddy's girl." As his youngest daughter, Morag's father doted on her constantly. When she was younger, he would put her on his shoulders or pick her up and swing her around so she felt like she was really flying. She knew that she could get anything out of her dad if she smiled like a little girl and asked sweetly.

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**I wrote this for _Wotcher-Tonks_'s 10 Facts Challenge on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum. Reviews are nice, but please be kind if you didn't like it. :)**


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